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I can't take books that try to reduce complex nuanced human behavior into an oversimplified equation seriously. They always feel like BS to me. I'm sure there a

I can't take books that try to reduce complex nuanced human behavior into an oversimplified equation seriously. They always feel like BS to me. I'm sure there are a few useful ideas in there, but the fact that the author is oversimplifying things to appeal to an as-large-as-possible audience makes me question all information presented in the book. If it's BS in one aspect, it's quite likely to be BS in other aspects as well.

jprete 3y ago
Almost all self-help books have this flaw. I think most of them won’t sell without providing something that looks like a solution. But to get that solution, they dress up the author’s badly-founded personal beliefs as final truth, support the thesis with cherrypicked personal anecdotes, and pretend they’ve thoroughly tested it all.
- Apocryphon 3y ago
  While I'm leery to be yet another book recommender in a discussion thread, suggesting a possible non-solution, I have to say Overcoming Anticipatory Anxiety by Seif and Winston is a decent self-help book when it comes to dealing with the core emotional motivators that lead to procrastination and other avoidant behaviors. It's steeped in CBT practices, which I'm not even sure I buy, but I found the "wise mind" concept of moving past one's current anxieties instead of engaging and getting stuck doom-debating with oneself. It's definitely got its share of dubious-sounding supposed anecdotes from the practitioners' sessions, neuroscience that sounds okay I guess, and too much time spent dissecting the problem into different categories. But! the book doesn't repeat itself too much, and it is only about 165 pages, which is practically pamphlet-sized compared to all of the bloated self-help books pretending to be novels or even textbooks. I think it's less of a book with a specific solution than a book with possible solutions that doesn't take that long to read through and choose.
  - TeMPOraL 3y ago
    Thanks for making the recommendation. I've been increasingly realizing that my procrastination, which has been extremely resistant to "usual" methods, may be driven primarily by habituated, intense anxieties. I'm only beginning to look at it from this angle, and going through this book you mentioned feels like a good next step.

jprete 3y ago

Almost all self-help books have this flaw. I think most of them won’t sell without providing something that looks like a solution. But to get that solution, they dress up the author’s badly-founded personal beliefs as final truth, support the thesis with cherrypicked personal anecdotes, and pretend they’ve thoroughly tested it all.

Apocryphon 3y ago
While I'm leery to be yet another book recommender in a discussion thread, suggesting a possible non-solution, I have to say Overcoming Anticipatory Anxiety by Seif and Winston is a decent self-help book when it comes to dealing with the core emotional motivators that lead to procrastination and other avoidant behaviors. It's steeped in CBT practices, which I'm not even sure I buy, but I found the "wise mind" concept of moving past one's current anxieties instead of engaging and getting stuck doom-debating with oneself. It's definitely got its share of dubious-sounding supposed anecdotes from the practitioners' sessions, neuroscience that sounds okay I guess, and too much time spent dissecting the problem into different categories. But! the book doesn't repeat itself too much, and it is only about 165 pages, which is practically pamphlet-sized compared to all of the bloated self-help books pretending to be novels or even textbooks. I think it's less of a book with a specific solution than a book with possible solutions that doesn't take that long to read through and choose.
- TeMPOraL 3y ago
  Thanks for making the recommendation. I've been increasingly realizing that my procrastination, which has been extremely resistant to "usual" methods, may be driven primarily by habituated, intense anxieties. I'm only beginning to look at it from this angle, and going through this book you mentioned feels like a good next step.